


With the Program

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 18:39:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3539921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Rodney present a paper together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With the Program

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #197 "conference"

John had spent so much time editing and re-editing the paper that he and Rodney were going to present together that he didn’t entirely register that they were going to _present it together_.

“Your presentation will be first, right after the keynote speaker,” said the young woman who had welcomed them to the conference— John couldn’t remember her actual title because she looked a little like Julie from _The Love Boat_ and he kept thinking of her as the ‘cruise director’. “And can I say, the committee that organized today was thrilled when you submitted your paper? They’re really interested to show how military scientists can still do pure, research-based groundbreaking science, without always needing to blow something up.”

John felt just a tiny bit guilty at that, since their so-called ‘pure’ science was actually something they’d come up with to allow a puddle jumper to use its cloak _and_ shields at the same time. But of course, that part was highly classified, and they were presenting the idea as though it was entirely theoretical.

“Right,” he mumbled, but she continued smiling.

“You’ll want to get settled before we begin,” she said. “The speakers have reserved seating— Lucas will show you the way— and here is a program of today’s presentations.”

She had already turned to greet the next arrivals when John glanced down at the program and froze. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a sheet of printer paper folded in half with the conference’s stylized logo on the front. But inside the cover, right there in size fourteen Times New Roman font, _Dr. M. Rodney McKay and Col. John Sheppard_ , their names looking completely natural next to one another. 

People had been saying their names together for years, “John, Rodney,” like they were one thought, like if one of them was involved, then of course the other was right behind. And their names had been written together before, too, usually on mission reports with the rest of their team, even sometimes printed out, despite Atlantis’s attempts to go paperless.

But somehow, this was different. John felt like a teenage girl, writing _John + Rodney 4ever_ on the cover of her algebra textbook, but he couldn’t help imagining their names written somewhere else, maybe on that thick cream-colored paper the Athosians made for special occasions, announcing—

“Marry me,” John blurted.

Rodney, who had been in the middle of a rant about having to dumb down their presentation for the ‘undereducated dregs of academia’, came to an abrupt halt. He opened his mouth, closed it again, then said, “Did you seriously just propose to me during a scientific conference?”

“Yes?” said John, because yeah, the timing could have been better, but he _was_ serious and he wasn’t about to take it back.

“Oh,” said Rodney. “Oh, well… yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes,” Rodney said, more firmly. “Yes, you lunatic, I’ll marry you.”

John grinned and kissed him, holding on tight until someone behind them cleared her throat.

“I’m so sorry to interrupt, gentlemen,” said the cruise director, her smile genuine this time. “But they’d like all the speakers seated before they start.”

“Of course,” said John. “Where are my fiancé and I sitting?”

She beamed. “Right this way.”

Rodney brushed his fingers against John’s as they walked. “Fiancé,” he said.

John grinned. “Yeah.”

THE END


End file.
